Back at the hotel after the gig, we bought a large case of lager and settled in at Kirk's room for a music quiz ending to the night. I was teamed with Harry and fell asleep, I think we lost.
We set off early from Portland the next morning for the long drive up to Canada.
Along the way we stopped at Jessica's mums house and picked up mine and Kellie's missing passports, after I skillfully out manoeuvred our "follower" on Interstate 5.
The next port of call was lunch, we stopped at a wonderful Mexican restaurant where despite his hatred of cheese (mentalist) even even Peter enjoyed his meal. It really was one of the better meals of our entire trip, and thoroughly enjoyable as we say there ate, drank, chatted and chilled for a couple of hours. The owner was delightful as well and graciously snapped photographs for us tourists. I think our large group expanded his daily takings in a big way and we left him a generous tip for his efforts.
VANCOUVER, BC. CANADA.
Upon entering Canada we were pulled into the customs office to explain our large travelling group, not too much hassle except it was here I discovered that I "might" have problems getting back into the USA because my green card wasn't with my passport. Doh!!!!!
My options were:
A) Stay in the States.
B) Enter Canada and take a chance on not getting back in.
I elected to choose option B. There was no other choice really, I didn't want to miss the show and obviously as the van driver it was my fucking duty. Oh yeah, danger is my middle name.
We finally made it to Vancouver and the City was quite beautiful, we passed a stadium where the soon to be MLS team Vancouver Whitecaps were playing. The streets were filled with fans and I was quite impressed, just a pity we were short on time, I would have actually liked to have gone to watch Peter Beardsley's old team in action.
Our hotel was a right dump, definitely the worst one of the entire tour and situated in a shady part of town as well. Some dodgy homeless bloke was wandering the corridors checking the doors to guests rooms. I reported this to the desk clerk and he seemed completely uninterested, the twat.
We all rode to the venue in taxi's as I fancied a drink on the last night, big mistake, the first pint I sampled was a watered down Guinness. It was so foul that it put me off drinking for the rest of the evening.
The gig was ace, Earlimart thanked us for our support, we gave Aaron a barmy army shirt which he wore onstage. TWP paid tribute to us onstage and after the gig, we chatted with both bands and everyone posed for photo's.
We met legendary forumite Revs at this gig, he politely greeted us but we didn't see him again which was a shame, nice bloke, but I just think he was a bit shy. I'm sure (and hope) our paths will cross again one day.
The next morning we tearfully said our goodbyes. Harry, Kirk, Peter, Ian and Steph were flying out of Vancouver, while Cait, Keg, Kellie and I were driving back to L.A.
We hugged, took pictures, shed a few tears and then drove the
"Jambo Coloured Beast" off in the morning sun, southbound back towards the USA.
At customs I embarrassingly confessed that I had forgot to bring my green card along on the trip.
My take on the matter is that they could just easily look me up on the computer, compare my CA ID, social security number and passport with my green card file and say "Oh yeah, that's you alright" and let me go, it would literally take 5 or 10 minutes.
Well that wasn't their take on it. We were "imprisoned" in some scruffy DHSS type office for three hours while I was bollocked, tortured and interrogated. Then I had to sign a form saying that I was a naughty boy and wouldn't do it again or I would get a massive fine.
Oh well, no harm done, at the end of the day if they had made it quick and easy I would have no motivation not to forget it again in the future and I realise that they were only doing their job.
Needless to say, I won't ever forget my green card again.
The plan was for me to drive through without stopping but by 1am I'd had enough and we booked into a cheap motel just outside California. Fortunately the room had three beds so Keg and Cait didn't have to bunk up.
I got us up all early at 7am and we were soon on the road again.
The drive home was fucking mind numbing, luckily for the passengers the DVD player kept them entertained.
We finally arrived back in Simi Valley at 9.30pm on Sunday night completely knackered.
The next morning I dispatched Cait and Keg off at LAX, we bade each other farewell and with that the barmy army tour was over.
I was kind of relieved that it over, all the driving had taken a bit of a toll on me, I was shagged and it was a bit stressful being somewhat in charge of 11 other adults.
But I was also extremely sad, we had a wonderful time, travelled with great people and had loads of fun. The shows were excellent as both bands played their hearts out.
I was even gutted to see the van returned, I had grown fond of that massive fucker during the previous two weeks.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Jessica and David, Terry, Chris and Graeme of The Wedding Present for making the tour possible and putting us on the guest list.
Earlimart for also welcoming us and being exceptionally friendly to us during the tour. Maybe they were scared of us and thought we were a group of middle aged stalkers not to be trifled with, either way they never let it be known. A special mention to Aaron for his piss poor British accent and for wearing a barmy army shirt onstage.
Thanks to the lovely people at Bandago.
A shout out to the many forumites who greeted us on the tour Kia, Nall and his lovely girlfriend, Fergal, Revs and anyone else who said hi, but I forgot about.
But most of all a big thanks to Kellie, Ian, Steph, Cait, Peter, Kirk, Marc, Harry, Keg and Phil. Thanks for coming along for the ride and contributing to the most enjoyable two weeks ever. The gigs were great but the best times were the touristy ventures, eating, drinking and just hanging out with you lot.
Fingers crossed for an east coast tour in 2010.
